2010 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients

Donald O. Concannon, 1952

Donald O. Concannon, 1952, of Hugoton, Kansas, attended Essex School from 1933-37, a oneroom country school 20 miles northeast of Garden City. The district closed it in 1937 during the heart of the Dust Bowl. His family moved to Garden City, Kansas, where he graduated from high school. He enlisted in the United States Navy on May 1, 1945. Concannon graduated from Garden City Community College and received his B.A. in political science from Washburn University in 1952, where he was active in sports and was a member of the varsity football and track teams. He was also a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity. As a Washburn Law student, he was involved in the Student Bar Association. Concannon was state chair of the Republican Party, and in 1974 was a candidate in the primary election for Governor. In 1987, he established the Donald O. Concannon Law Scholarship, an endowed fund designated for students in the School of Law. He also established the Patricia Davis Concannon Endowed Law Scholarship, in memory of his first wife, Patricia J. Davis, 1953.

The Honorable John Edwards Conway, 1963

The Honorable John Edwards Conway, 1963, is Senior United States District Judge in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was co-captain of Paola (Kansas) High School's first undefeated and untied football team. At the United States Naval Academy, Conway was one of sixteen midshipmen out of 680 in his class to letter three years. In 1963, Conway graduated magna cum laude from Washburn University School of Law. Conway was editor of the Washburn Law Journal, a member of Phi Alpha Delta, and president of the student bar association. During the 1970s, Judge Conway was a New Mexico State Senator for ten years and served as the Minority Floor Leader for 8 years. Since 1986 he has been United States District Judge, an appointment made by then President Ronald Reagan. In the 1980s, he was Chairman of the New Mexico Governor's Organized Crime Prevention Commission, and Chairman, Disciplinary Board of New Mexico Supreme Court. Judge Conway was appointed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court in Washington, D.C. by United States Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, serving from 2003-2008. He was a member of the Judicial Resources Committee in 1995-1998 and Chief Judge for the District of New Mexico in 1994-2000. In 1994, Judge Conway tried a six-month drug case, the longest trial on record in New Mexico judicial history.

BS, United States Naval Academy, 1956JD, Washburn University, 1963Senior United States District Judge, Albuquerque, New Mexico

The Honorable Homer Hoch, 1909

The Honorable Homer Hoch, 1909, was valedictorian of Marion (Kansas) High School in 1898 and graduated from Baker University, Baldwin, Kansas, in 1902. He attended George Washington Law School in Washington, D.C., but later graduated in 1909 from Washburn University School of Law. Hoch served as clerk and chief of the Appointment Division in the United States Post Office Department, Washington, D.C., from 1903-1905. He was private secretary to the Governor of Kansas, his father, Edward Wallis Hoch, in 1907-1908. Hoch was engaged in the practice of law in Marion from 1909-1919, and was editor of the Marion (Kansas) Record. In 1928, Hoch served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention, held in Kansas City, Missouri.

Hoch was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-sixth U.S. Congress and to the six succeeding Congresses (March 1919-March 1933). He served as member and chairman of the State Corporation Commission of Kansas during the years of 1933-1939. Hoch was elected a member of the Kansas Supreme Court in 1938. Hoch was reelected in 1944 and served until his death five years later. He was interred in Highland Cemetery, Marion, Kansas.

His father, Edward Wallis Hoch was the seventeenth Governor of Kansas (1905-1909), and was a Republican member of the Kansas State House of Representatives (1889 and 1893).

The Honorable Raymond J. Reynolds, 1929

The Honorable Raymond J. Reynolds, 1929, initially practiced law in Topeka for 17 years while serving seven terms as president of the Topeka chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Reynolds led a fight to open the suit of Topeka area public parks for all persons regardless of their color. Before leaving Kansas, Judge Reynolds did the preliminary work with the NAACP's national office to explore the merits of using the Topeka school system for the case that ultimately became a landmark school desegregation decision, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, He also wrote a column entitled "Cheers and Encores" for the Topeka Capital-Journal.

After unsuccessfully challenging incumbent Warren Shaw, 1931, a fellow Washburn Law graduate, for election as Topeka municipal judge, he moved in the mid-1940s to California. Reynolds served several years as president of the NAACP in San Francisco, and won several legal decisions that advanced civil rights. In 1954, Reynolds became the first African American appointed as Deputy City Attorney in San Francisco, and became well known as one of their top trial attorneys. Governor Ronald Reagan appointed him as judge of the Superior Court in Oakland in 1969, where he served until his retirement ten years later. Following retirement, he returned to the bench to fill temporary court vacancies in several judicial districts at the request of the California Judicial Council. In 1989, Judge Reynolds was inducted into the National Bar Association's Hall of Fame, a unique distinction as he was the first Washburn Law graduate to receive this honor. He wrote two books, Sharing My Notebook, published in 1979, and Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury, a dissertation on successful ways to sway juries, which was published in 1989. Judge Reynolds received his undergraduate degree from Washburn University. He lived many years at 1901 High Street in Topeka, in a house built by his father. Reynolds' brother, Earl Reynolds, 1923, also received his undergraduate and law degrees from Washburn.

Born: August 29, 1905 - Topeka, KansasDied: August 14, 1995 - Oakland, California, at the age of 89